Item PL17
This Item was Sold on 2 February
2018 for $40
Similar artifacts for sale are often found on the Lithic
Artifacts web page.
Historical Pricing information for this item and similar artifacts
can be found at: Historical Artifact
Prices.
This item is a set of Pre-Columbian
Neolithic Celts, knives and scrapers from the Madden Lake
region of Central Panama. All five of these artifacts are
surface finds from the shoreline of Madden Lake when it is
at its lowest level at the end of the dry season. These
artifacts were found by George Chevalier who lived on the
Pacific side of the Panama Canal Zone. George hunted for
artifacts only in the American jurisdiction of the former
Panama Canal Zone. All 5 of these artifacts have
identification marks indicating the approximate location of
the surface finds. All 5 have the letters " C. Z. M. L. "
which identify the artifacts as " Canal Zone Madden Lake
". There are two celts in this collection.
One celt is made out of Basalt with a smooth surface
texture. One end is ground on both sides to form a sharp
cutting edge. The second celt was made out of a metamorphic
rock with a slightly rougher texture than the Basalt celt.
Both sides are crowned. There are also three lithic tools
made out of Chert (Flint) and these can be used as either
knives or scrapers. George Chevalier lived on the Pacific
side of the former Panama Canal Zone until he retired and
moved to the USA. He was on the same Balboa High School
swimming team as my father. George used to hunt for
artifacts along the Las Cruces Trail and on the shore of
Madden Lake. George usually looked for Spanish artifacts,
but one day, he found a small stone ax and brought it home
to show to his sister who lived with him. She liked the
stone ax and asked George to bring home any others that he
found. Over the years, he found dozens of artifacts for his
sister and these lithic tools that are for sale are part of
the Chevalier collection. All of these artifacts were
collected in the American Canal Zone in the 1950s - 1970s
and prior to when the territory was ceded back to Panama
(1999). I brought several of these artifacts to
U.C. Berkeley for identification. I was told that these
lithic artifacts are similar to artifacts in the U.C.
Berkeley collection that were dated between 500 B.C. and
1,000 A.D. View pdf files showing Panama Celt sale prices on
eBay: Celt
#1 and Celt
#2. Celt #2: Length = 52 mm ; Width = 36 mm ; Thickness = 17
mm ; Weight = 42 gm Scraper #1: Length = 150 mm ; Width = 38 mm ; Thickness =
13 mm ; Weight = 88 gm Scraper #2: Length = 89 mm ; Width = 40 mm ; Thickness =
15 mm ; Weight = 52 gm Scraper #3: Length = 78 mm ; Width = 42 mm ; Thickness =
9 mm ; Weight = 34 gm